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"It was about 9 o'clock and the only lights I had was coming from the kitchen through the blinds right here. I didn't have the patio light on," he said. "And something nibbled on my toe."

He said he thought it was a bullfrog at first, but then the bat spread its wings. He said he still wasn't alarmed.

When the bat was still there the next day, his wife took pictures and sent them to Lee's Summit Animal Control officers, who told the man to get to an emergency room right away for a series of rabies shots.

"If it wasn't for that lady, I wouldn't have gone to see my doctor," Rafol said. "She said, 'You'd better see a doctor. You don't want to get the rabies."

Results released Tuesday showed that the bat tested positive for rabies.

Lee's Summit Animal Control has impounded nearly 75 bats this spring and summer and has tested 25 of them. This is the third time this year that one of those tests has shown a bat to be rabid.

"It's unusual to have three of them test positive for rabies, but it's not surprising because we know bats carry rabies or can carry rabies," said Rodney Wagner of Lee's Summit Animal Control.

Experts said it's rare for a bat to bite a human, but pets are more commonly at risk.

"You know, cats and dogs like to play with things and they see a bat flying close to the ground eating bugs, they can knock them down and they can get bitten that way," said Wagner. "You definitely want to keep your cats and dogs vaccinated for rabies and then if they get bitten, then there's no problem. It won't bother them."

Bats feast on tons of insects, including mosquitoes, so they're helpful to have in neighborhoods. They are not generally aggressive toward humans, only biting if they're frightened or provoked.

Rafol said he had an extra round of rabies shots on Tuesday because of the bite.

"(I had) shots over here and in the buttocks and the wound where I got bitten," he said. He described the shots as painful.

Rafol said he doesn't blame the bat and feels sad that it had to be put down for the rabies test. He said the incident won't keep him from enjoying evenings on his patio.